What Time Cannot Erase
by magicafan1989
Summary: Rated T for Safety. Takes place during and after the events of Episode 23-Episode 24 of the first Negima! anime.


**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Mahou Sensei Negima or "My Immortal". Mahou Sensei Negima is owned by Ken Akamatsu, Kodansha, Del Rey, and all respective proprietors. "My Immortal" is owned by WMG and Evanescence.

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What Time Cannot Erase

_I'm so tired of being here  
Suppressed by all my childish fears  
And if you have to leave  
I wish that you would just leave  
'Cause your presence still lingers here  
And it won't leave me alone _

October 23, 2002

The bells of Mahora tolled a sad song that dark and dreary day. Though a loss was felt through the whole academy, the loss hit those of Year 3 Class A the hardest. Just the night before, they celebrated the birthday of a close friend and classmate. Now, even a few hours later, she was dead. There was no known cause as to why. She had just perished, the flame in her heart extinguished at the strike of midnight.

As her body lay in the open casket, those who she grew up with stood to one side, consoling each other as best as they could. He stood there gazing down upon her body, unable to shed any tears. He had been there with her the moment she died. He held the power of the elements at his hand, yet he could not save the life of the one who had taken care of him and helped him in his time of need.

_These wounds won't seem to heal  
This pain is just too real  
There's just too much that time cannot erase_

_When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears  
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears  
And I held your hand through all of these years  
But you still have  
All of me _

That night, he found himself up in the branch where he had found her. He remembered how she tried to drive him away. He attempted to console her, but in her final moments, she had something to tell him. However, she never finished it.

'What were you trying to tell me?'

The unshed tears in his eyes began to well up and pour forth. Why now? Why didn't they come when he had seen her lying there? Why didn't they come when they nailed the chamber of her eternal slumber shut? Why didn't they come when they took her away to inter her body like the ancient phoenix? His sobs and screams of agony rent the moonlit sky. Endlessly, he screamed her name, as if driven by some primal hope that she would hear him and answer him back, but her reply never came.

The next day, class 3-A came in to see an old teacher of theirs in their class. When they inquired as to where their beloved teacher had gone, he told them that he had resigned and was returning home. Driven by sorrow, they fled to the train station, but they were too late. They saw the door close behind him as the train took off from the platform, never to bring him back.

_You used to captivate me  
By your resonating light  
Now I'm bound by the life you left behind  
Your face it haunts  
My once pleasant dreams  
Your voice it chased away  
All the sanity in me _

Five Years Later

He promised himself he would never return, but yet he could not keep his former students off his mind. As the train pulled up to the station, he looked out the window. Not much had changed since that fateful day five years ago. The first place he headed to was the Dean's Office. As he entered, the wizened old man smiled and warmly welcomed him. For several minutes, they talked about what had happened during the years he had gone.

Most of the girls had gone on to university. However, there were a few who had left the academy just as he had. The class rep had gone on to take over her family's business. The heiress had left the academy to return and take over the Kansai Magic Association, her bodyguard now staying ever loyally by her side.

Once the had finished speaking, he left the building and looked toward the one place that was still etched in his memories, the one place that he new he would never forget.

_These wounds won't seem to heal  
This pain is just too real  
There's just too much that time cannot erase_

_When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears  
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears  
And I held your hand through all of these years  
But you still have  
All of me _

_I've tried so hard to tell myself you're gone_

_But though you're still with me_

_I've been alone all along_

He found himself back on that same branch as he had five years ago. He could almost see her sitting next to him, tears in her eyes, trying to tell him something. Even though he had left those horrible memories behind, it still kept eating away at him all those years. Now, he found himself asking the same question again.

'What were you trying to tell me?'

He stood up on the branch, letting the cool wind blowing gently upon his features. How he wanted to fly, not with a staff, but how the birds flew. It couldn't be hard, right? And, with a certain finality, he let his body relax as the power of gravity did the rest of the work.

'I think I understand what you were trying to tell me. And I'm coming to tell you the same. I love you too.'

The only witness to the spectacle was the birds that flew gently on the wind, watching as he fell far below to meet her again; to hold her hand and be with her for all eternity.

_When you cried I'd wipe away all of your tears  
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears  
And I held your hand through all of these years  
But you still have  
All of me _


End file.
